Movie: 180 Degrees South

We watched this movie in class and I just loved it.  Jeff Johnson went on an epic journey to Patagonia. Along the way he was shipwrecked in Rapa Nui a.k.a. Easter Island and once they go the boat fixed he was on his way for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado and meets up with his heroes Chouinard and Tompkins who had done this journey before. 

Just the idea of leaving everything you know behind for something new is scary in its self, but that is when you really get to see who you really are as a person and how you really fit in, in the grand scheme of things.  I would love to just drop everything behind and follow my dreams where I get to travel the world and see and learn things you wouldn’t normally learn in a class room.  I feel as though my purpose is not to sit in a desk doing paper work, but to actually go out into the unknown and learn the true meaning of life and know what is out there past our fences.  Unfortunately, I don’t think may people can do this because their lives are already planned out for them and it does seem somewhat unlikely that many people would just drop what they are doing to travel to a place they have never been to. “The fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all,” I think this is a great quote.  The thing I fear the most is not getting the chance to travel into the unknown, it may be a bit scary, but it’s better than wishing you had taken that chance to do something like what Jeff did but chose not to.  I am quite the planner, and my plan is to actually go out there and learn everything there is to learn and help those along the way that includes me.  That is the ultimate goal for me. 

While watching the movie I felt a bit sad, thinking that we are truly missing out on the true beauty of the world.  It’s like looking at a beautiful landscape painting, where you wish we were in the painting and really being immersed in the beauty.  We buy these painting because of their beauty and the thought of actually being there, but the fact of the matter is, the painting is just paint on a canvas and the real beauty is out there just beyond our reach.  However, there is beauty out there that we see every day, but are too busy to notice.  We take things for granted, and never really think about what we are doing. We are too absorbed in our daily lives that we don’t really stop to think what our actions are doing to the world.  The painting will soon be a memory of what beauty was and not something that exist today because we are destroying the beauty that the world gave us.  If we keep on this destructive path we will lose everything. We are constantly taking away land for our own selfish need and not thinking of the consequence of our actions, or we just don’t care.   One quote I really liked was “when open land is gone we will be gone with it.”

Over all I loved this movie and just wanted to jump in while watching it.  You really learn a lot.

Here is the movie Trailer: